Often times people will not believe in God because they see the world as a place where lots of bad things happen, and if a god existed, he wouldn’t allow all these things to go on.
Let’s face it, bad things happen all of the time. We see murder, theft, abortion, war, racism, disease, alcoholism, pornography, greed, etc. going on all around us. Why would God allow all of this to happen if He is so good and loving?
It’s a good question to ask, and an even better one to have an answer for.
First, let’s assume a god doesn’t exist. Does the evil somehow now vanish away? No! We still have evil in the world with or without a god.
Let’s now ask ourselves “where does the bulk of the evil come from”? People are the ones who commit murder, people are the ones who steal, people are the ones who lie, people are the ones who get drunk, people are the ones who go to war, people are the ones who make and watch pornography, and people are the ones who conceive children and then murder them – so far as it goes, it looks like people are the problem!
Now let’s assume God exists and people are the problem.
So, Whattaya Do?
God allowing evil is an act of mercy toward us! If God were to get rid of all evil at 10pm tonight, where would you and I be at 10:01pm? We would all have to be eliminated – but God, in His mercy, doesn’t do that.
God allows us to act in a way that preserves our freedom and His sovereignty simultaneously. Not only that, but God isn’t afraid of evil. He sends His only Son into the world to suffer under the very evil we caused, to suffer with us and for us. He makes a way for us to be forgiven and enter a world that exists without evil called heaven.
We are the cause of evil and God is the only solution.
If evil took place and God sat idly by, you might say he wasn’t loving. If evil took place and God did nothing, you might say He wasn’t able or powerful enough to handle it.
But, the greatest expression of love is God becoming a man and entering into the world he created, to suffer alongside with the very people who would reject him. He loves humanity enough to take on himself the consequence for their bad choices. HE ultimately deals with the evil that WE created.
And His resurrection from the dead proves that there is an afterlife and hope!
Did it ever dawn on you that the identifying symbol of Christianity is an instrument of human suffering – a cross? Suffering doesn’t just fall on us, it falls on our creator also.
And He doesn’t retreat from it – he faces it head on and deals with it, giving us hope. He’s the only God who’s done that by the way. The Christian worldview is the only view that can account for evil and it’s eventual elimination.
And now you know Whattaya Do! Thanks for listening.
you didn’t address the issue of evil orchestrated by natural disasters like hurricane, earthquakes etc, which can be attributed to a supernatural being. kindly address that
Earthquakes, hurricanes and the like are the result of sin entering the world. The world was adversely effected by the sin man caused. God sometimes uses natural disasters as judgment upon sinners – it is righteous to punish guilty sinners. Every natural disaster is not an act of judgement however. What you also need to consider in the Christian worldview is that there is an afterlife in which God can make right everything that was wrong in this present life. He can restore everything that was lost for those who had faith in Him. We may sometimes not know every reason why God allows natural disasters, but we do know that He has a purpose for everything. When something like this happens, we weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn, but we do not weep as those without hope. Thanks for asking.